BARKING ALIEN

Thursday, August 17, 2017

I don't buy food I'm not going to eat.I don't buy clothes I'm not going to wear.I don't own a TV because I only watch a few TV shows, and they're all on the internet.I don't @#%$ing own games I'm not going to @#%$ing play.Ugh.ADBarking Alien

I think I ran a game as-is in 1985 once...or was it '83? I really don't recall exactly. Honestly, maybe I dreamed it.

Considering the fact that A) I feel a lot games are overwritten without actually paying attention to trying to represent their respective genres, and B) I'm a tinkerer, and kit-basher by nature, I've adapted dozens upon dozens of games over the years.

In the 9 years this blog has been around, you've seen me turn Traveller into Star Wars (and consider turning it into Star Trek), Faery's Tale Deluxe into The Smurfs, heard tell of Teenagers from Outer Space being turned into everything from Wizard of Oz, and Time Travel, to Galaxy Quest and even American Superheroes. I toyed with using it to run My Hero Academia, but decided to hack apart three other games into an original system.

Marvel Heroic makes a great game for running American cartoons, or Japanese anime. InSpectres can easily be adapted to run Sci-Fi Survival.

Honestly, if I have to choose the game I adapt the most, or have adapted the most, it would be TFOS. I've done sooo much with that game. It's just so simple, and easy to add stuff to.

Open-ended campaigns are my preferred approach to RPGs. I would rather run a game this way then any other. Games that are not designed for long term, open-ended campaign play absolutely serve a purpose, and have a definite place in ones gaming collection. There are a number of them on my own shelves.While it is possible to run my own game, The Googly Eyed Primetime Puppet Show, as a long term game with no definitive end, I fully don't expect that's what people are going to do with it. It, like Toon, Teenagers from Outer Space, Hunter Planet, Fiasco, and many other fantastic RPGs, these games are best a breaks from the usual, and familiar.However, any game which focuses on exploration of the setting(s), and the characters, where power creep is relatively slow, or at least manageable, and you can change things up from time, to time without throwing the whole thing out of whack works for me for open-ended play.I especially like games where the PCs are people living in the universe of the game. These are some of the best games for open-ended play because the players are following the lives of character who are native to the setting, and as such they may live, work, have adventures, get married, have kids, grow old, and die like real people. You are then able to play their kids, or grand kids. Life goes on, as they say, and a virtual life does the same except with space travel, magic, and more explosions.My favorites for this type of game include:Star Trek, using Last Unicorn's ICON System, RPG.Traveller, using my Classic/MegaTraveller hybrid rules.Champions, 4th edition of course, for Supers that keep on trucking. and while D&D isn't my favorite game by any stretch, I do concede that it is well built for open-ended, long term play. Others I've had success with include Star Wars (WEG D6), Villains & Vigilantes, Mutants & Masterminds, Mekton, and Teenagers from Outer Space (yeah, I know what I said, but it's possible to use the game for longer term play if you really want to).OK, that's it for that. What's next?ADBarking Alien

In order for me to answer this question, and for you out there to understand my answer, I have to start at the beginning of it all with my first gaming experience. From the first moments of the first game, I and those I was playing with at the time, approached the game [Basic Dungeons and Dragons, Holmes version, 1977] differently then most people did, as I have come to realize over the years. As a result of this divergent starting point, my gaming experiences took a different path then that of many of my fellow veteran gamers. After 40 years on that alternate path, my present looks a lot different as well, or rather it does when I am gaming 'my way'.A recent conversation with a friend, whom a game with regularly, about my recent My Hero Academia based game really brought those differences to light. We had basic, fundamental differences on what makes for a fun game, what players in a game do, and what role the rules play in the fun, and why. Neither right, nor wrong, our opinions clearly marked what feels right, or wrong to each of us. My point?Numerous gaming experiences throughout my gaming history changed how I play, starting with the very first one. It kept on changing.I like to think it keeps on changing, and sometimes it goes back to what works best.ADBarking Alien

About Me

My name is Adam Dickstein and I am a Writer, Artist, General Creative Person, Gamer, Dog Lover, Food Lover, Science Fiction Fan, Trekkie, Comic Book Fan, Muppets Fan and all around nice guy.
I began playing role playing games with D&D in 1977. As of August 25th of 2015, I have been gaming for 38 years! I've worked in the comic book and gaming industry in one capacity or another for over 20 years.